Painting Indiana III: Heritage of Place

Judge’s Comments

Judge’s Comments M. Stephen Doherty, Editor, Plein Air Magazine I was impressed with the Painting Indiana project when I first heard about it because it seemed to be a challenging and rewarding project for everyone involved. It was clearly an innovative and significant collaboration between Indiana Landmarks, Indiana University Press, and the Indiana Plein Air Painters Association that was aimed at celebrating historically important scenes, buildings, monuments, cemeteries, farms, waterways, and other locations in the state. My impressions were confirmed when I actually met with members of the various organizations and judged the entries in the competition. The variety and quality of the work I reviewed was extremely high, and the fact that the images were regional made them even more significant. Like the best artwork of any time or place, these pictures provided information about the subjects and about the artists who created them.They could be enjoyed both for their content and for the expressive qualities that reflected the artists’ personal responses to the locations. It was difficult to go through all the original works presented for judging, and I know that a number of pieces deserved more recognition than I was able to give them. Nevertheless, I am pleased with the final selection. I appreciated the fact that I was able to select more than one picture by some of the artists who participated in the competition because that helped me arrive at a body of work that accurately reflected the theme of the project and the quality of work submitted. It would have been unfortunate if some of the important locations in Indiana were overlooked or only given brief attention,or if the final presentations didn’t celebrate the exceptional talent of artists in the region. I grew up in Cincinnati and graduated from a college in Illinois, so the subjects presented in the artwork appealed to me on a personal level.The fact that I was able to drive to Evansville and Nashville during my trip gave me an even greater appreciation of the visual and cultural richness of Indiana. I especially want to thank the members of the host organizations who made my experience so enjoyable.The contest was well organized, thoroughly explained,effectively promoted,and professionally managed.In addition,I appreciated the opportunity to talk to an enthusiastic group of people about the connections between plein air painting and historic preservation. I even had time to do two small watercolor paintings of the fall landscape, which helped embed in my mind fond memories of Indiana, the Indiana Plein Air Painters Association, and Indiana Landmarks. INDIANA III ...